Friday, 21 May 2010

I bought Wolverine #900, because (as I said in an earlier post) Wolverine is one of my favourite fictional characters in any medium, he’s up there With Batman, Jesus, Phillip Marlowe and Jeffrey Lebowski. I also really like anthologies, due to their nature they're generally a mixed bag, like revels, some people like the coffee ones, others like the toffee ones, and everyone likes the nude Minstrels. Well this was more like a bag of Revels where there where there're a handful of nude Minstrels, but every other flavour has been replaced with small pellets of excrement, so not so much a mixed bag, as a mixed sack of crap. Appallingly the highlights are reprints from a few years ago. The Wolverine/Hulk story from Ed McGuiness (#50) and the Spider-Man and Wolverine go to a bar story (Amazing Spider-Man Extra #2) are the highlights, particularly the bar story.

The Original content however veers from the OK, (Goes drinking with a graphic designer - Honestly) to the downright insultingly bad. I can’t believe anyone would pay someone to produce the trapped-in-a-cave-with-the-Morlocks story. I can only assume that it was commissioned as filler over a decade ago (when the story is set) and was found in a drawer. The plot is dire and the art seems to be entirely traced from late 90s X-Men covers by someone who's clearly never seen a real pair of breasts in his life, if his anatomy is anything to go by. I can only assume that it’s by an editor’s nephew or some such, perhaps by someone with some incriminating photographs.

Ironically, this deeply uninspiring package is actually a good staring point for the character. It’s got a 'New-Avengers-Double-Act: Wolvie and Spidey' story, a Noir-ish story where he does some investigating for an old friend (with a shameless Yellow Claw red herring seemingly thrown in just so the artist could draw him), a (shithouse) X-Men story, a Versus the Hulk Story, a Wolverine likes hanging round with young girls story (a particularly naff one at that) and a few more t'boot. So if you’re a new reader, then this is actually a good introduction to who he is and what he do, and if you like this, wait till you read the good stories! Also there is a lot of story for your money albeit of debatable quality.

Two mouldy bone claws out of a possible six shiny Adamantium sharpies.